Sept. 2, 2002 - It was 1998 when Patricia Mackey realized she had a problem she could no longer ignore. The librarian for Rockefeller University Library was having increasing problems tracking the books and periodicals in her collection. The research university in upper Manhattan is home to post-doctoral students working on cutting edge research. They needed access to the biomedical research collection 24 hours a day.

RFID goes beyond theft prevention

Budgetary cutbacks meant that Mackey couldn’t keep staff working past 5 PM, so students were entrusted to check books out themselves. The system just wasn’t working. Students often took books at night without checking them out properly. Sometimes items wouldn’t be returned for months, even years, and no one knew who had them.

The solution to Mackey’s problem came in the form of a tiny microchip attached to an antenna – a simple RFID tag. Checkpoint Systems, the Thorofare, N.J., maker of RFID systems for retail applications, was working on a system designed specifically for libraries. Checkpoint was looking to test the system in a real environment. Mackey decided to be the proverbial guinea pig.

The library has tagged some 100,000 items in its collection with 2-inch by 2-inch RFID labels and installed a self-checkout station and RFID readers at the door. Teachers and students at the university all have photo IDs with either bar codes or magnetic stripes. When someone wants to check out a book, they simple swipe or scan their card, and place the book on a platform reader. The reader can scan a dozen books at once. The data is routed to a server that runs the circulation system, and the books are registered as checked out.